1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to methods and systems for placing a mailing address on an advertisement.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Bulk mail, commonly referred to as junk mail, is, predominantly, unsolicited advertisements sent to customers in a geographical area. Advertisers use bulk mail to deliver a printed advertisement to potential customers in the geographical area in the hopes of increasing business and/or sales or products. Since bulk mail is mixed in with regular mail, the potential customers must at least quickly look at the bulk mail to determine if the mail is important or not. In this manner, bulk mail succeeds in getting an advertisement into the hands of a customer in a manner that forces the customer to look at the advertisement. In a similar fashion, bulk mail is a common method of delivering coupons for products or services to customers in a geographical region.
Because marketing studies show bulk mail and direct mail continues to be effective, advertisers are willing to spend significant amounts of money on bulk mail advertising. Several data sources estimate that businesses spend about $45 billion per year on bulk mail. A major part of this expense is in postal fees for sending the bulk mail to the residents in a geographical area and the printing fees for printing the mail.
In contrast to bulk mail advertising, electronic advertising is significantly less expensive. Electronic advertising removes the costs of printing and mailing the advertisement. Once an advertisement is prepared, a single electronic copy of the advertisement can be sent or displayed in many different electronic & digital mediums. However, unlike bulk mail, electronic advertisements can be more easily ignored, and, in many instances are never seen. This leads to some hesitation by businesses to forgo bulk mail for electronic mail. Many businesses, instead, feel the need to use both forms of advertising, increasing the costs of advertising.